{"id":4938,"date":"2010-12-16T15:28:13","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T22:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=4938"},"modified":"2010-12-16T15:41:40","modified_gmt":"2010-12-16T22:41:40","slug":"breezy-update-with-chunks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=4938","title":{"rendered":"Breezy Update (with Chunks)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Two days under the weather.\u00a0 Diarrhea, vomiting . . . yuck, who wants to hear about that?\u00a0 TMI!\u00a0 TMI!<\/p>\n

I only mention it because I’m so damn happy it’s over.\u00a0 At last, I can get back to stressing over more important things than the distance to the nearest bathroom.<\/p>\n

Things like Christmas.\u00a0 I sent out our annual holiday message a couple of days ago.\u00a0 My, how far we have fallen.\u00a0 Until 2008 we mailed real letters, but for the past two years have sent only email.\u00a0 I know people read as much into the medium as the message, and sending email may seem like the act of a piker to them.\u00a0 Really, it was more about not having to hand feed 100 envelopes into the printer, never mind licking them all . . . you know, there’s no way to talk about this without sounding like the kind of jerk who’d send you an email instead of a real letter, so I’ll just move on, okay?<\/p>\n

I brought the Martha Stewart Omniliving Tree\u00ae in from the garage today, and maybe Polly will put it up this weekend.\u00a0 We strung the outdoor lights a couple of weeks ago, so as far as the neighbors are concerned, we’re in the spirit.\u00a0 Little do they know.<\/p>\n

At least my personal Christmas shopping is done.\u00a0 Every year about this time, I thank the gods for online shopping.\u00a0 I ordered three gifts Monday morning.\u00a0 Amazon promised me they’d all be here before December 22nd.\u00a0 The first one arrived today.\u00a0 It’s almost like magic!<\/p>\n

A friend asked me to call my senators in support of the DREAM act.\u00a0 One of my senators is John McCain.\u00a0 The other is John Kyl.\u00a0 Sure, that’d be a productive and worthwhile call.\u00a0 When it comes to the Senate, as an Arizona Democrat I’m disenfranchised . . . my voice will never be heard.<\/p>\n

And really, what’s the point?\u00a0 As Sean Paul Kelly at The Agonist<\/a> says:<\/p>\n

. . . sorry for the silence lately. I just have nothing to say, other than the infrequent one liner. There just doesn’t seem to be any point right now as the Democrats engage in an orgy of selling out their base and every institution in the United States engages in some form of censorship in regards the Wikileaks revelations. I’m just disgusted. More than anything else, I’m heartbroken to see this all happening the way it is.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve heard people argue that even if someone went back in time and murdered Mao in his crib, everything that happened in China during WWII and up to the present day would have happened anyway, right down to backyard steel smelters and the Gang of Four.\u00a0 Maybe the Little Red Book would have been blue instead.<\/p>\n

Few would deny there’s a rising tide of police state-style security and obedience to authority in our country, a tide the election of Obama and Democratic majorities in Congress did nothing to deflect.\u00a0 Like any tide, there’s no sweeping it back.\u00a0 It’ll recede when it recedes, and not before then.\u00a0 But it will recede.\u00a0 I have to believe in that.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, maybe we can rectify some small injustices:<\/p>\n

Martin Erzinger, the wealthy and connected motorist who ran down a bicyclist<\/a> in Vail, Colorado, and then fled the scene, leaving the bicyclist for dead?\u00a0 The one the local DA initially refused to charge with a felony because he’s wealthy and connected?\u00a0 Public outrage caused the DA to reconsider, and Erzinger’s now on trial for felony hit-and-run.<\/p>\n

Erzinger’s defense is sleep apnea.\u00a0 He says the fumes emanating from the upholstery<\/a> in his new Mercedes put him to sleep and he didn’t know he’d even hit anyone.\u00a0 He knew enough, though, to continue driving for several blocks, pull into a Pizza Hut parking lot, and call his insurance company to have the car towed to a repair shop.\u00a0 Wait a minute.\u00a0 I have sleep apnea<\/a>.\u00a0 And I’m not buying what Erzinger’s selling.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the outcome of the trial, Erzinger \u201c. . . has been deluged with very threatening, awful, vitriolic e-mails and phone calls.\u201d\u00a0 I just bet he has.<\/p>\n

But I see I’ve veered off in a hateful direction.\u00a0 Let’s get back to Christmas with this wonderful photo from The Boston Globe’s Big Picture<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Santa Claus gets a hug from Make-a-Wish Foundation child Emma Mear, 8, at Macy's in the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga, New York on Sunday, Dec. 5, 2010.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I can get behind a Santa like that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two days under the weather.\u00a0 Diarrhea, vomiting . . . yuck, who wants to hear about that?\u00a0 TMI!\u00a0 TMI! I only mention it because I’m so damn happy it’s over.\u00a0 At last, I can get back to stressing over more important things than the distance to the nearest bathroom. Things like Christmas.\u00a0 I sent out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,10,2,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bicycling","category-current-events","category-personal","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4938"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4947,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938\/revisions\/4947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}